


something about an incinerator

by russiazilla



Category: Original Work
Genre: Based on a Dream, Gen, Multi, fantasy elements (unexplained)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:33:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22991029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/russiazilla/pseuds/russiazilla
Summary: A short story about a few orphan kids.this is like. a word for word dream I had in 2016.





	something about an incinerator

**Author's Note:**

> as this is based off a dream, it's a bit disjointed and there are some things that are unexplained. (I may have omitted a few scenes that didn't even make sense in dream context).

Sis confessed to Huey when she was 13. I was a year younger than her and Huey was a year older. He said no, at first.

But Sis was persistent, in that bold way that kids tend to be when they don’t really know about the darker sides of life. She gave Huey food picked from our table and plants picked from the forest and rocks picked from the ground. She gave him hugs and kisses and held his hands, and all that bothered little rebellious me. Somehow, Huey was stealing my sister and I wasn’t going to stand for that.

Not that little rebellious me could come up with any _real_ rebellion. The best I could think of initially was going “ewww, ewww” whenever Sis was giving Huey something, and eventually my sabotage led to _me_ showering Huey with childish affection, as if I were competing with Sis for his attention.

“You like Huey too, don’t you?” Sis would ask me, laughing. She never saw me as a serious contender. 

And in my petulant anger I’d respond, “No! I like _you_ , Sis!”

And Huey, who was always within earshot when this exchange happened, would simply turn away, as if hiding his embarrassment.

/.\

Sis died the next year. She’d gone into the forest, presumably to gather something for Huey, and never came back. No one really cared about what happened to the homeless orphans, so Huey and I searched together and stumbled upon her lifeless body. Huey said she’d probably tripped in the dark and hit her head too hard on a rock.

That Sis had died alone, out in the dark forest, when Huey and I loved her so much, I couldn’t forgive. Not her for going alone, and not myself for letting her, and not Huey for being the reason she’d chosen to do such a thing. I was still young then, but no longer filled with carefree dreams.

We buried Sis in the forest, too, at her favorite play spot. She’d told me once that she was afraid of the incinerator, the yawning monstrosity that towered over our small town. It was all I could do for her, to keep her out of its hungry clutches.

After I said goodbye to Huey that night we buried Sis, nothing was the same anymore.

/.\

“Sana, did you miss me?” Sis asked when I returned to the hovel I used to share with her.

I screamed. Then cried. Then screamed again when Sis’ clammy body reached out to me. I pushed her away and ran out of the hovel as fast as I could.

Huey. I ran to Huey first. “We buried her, didn’t we?” I panted out without even greeting him.

Huey just gave me a strange look.

“I saw Sis,” I said. “She was at home. She was dead but at home, and…”

Huey put a steadying hand on my shoulder and gave me a pitying look. “Sana, she’s gone,” he said. “I know it’ll be hard to get used to her absence. I’m always here for you if you need help. Go on and get some rest.”

“But, she talked to me,” I protested. He shook his head. I thought maybe Huey was right, that I’d imagined Sis and I really just needed some sleep.

So to the hovel I went, and Sis was sitting right there as she had been before.

“Is that the kind of ‘welcome back’ you give your big sister who came back from the dead just for you?” Sis said cheerfully.

“This has to be a bad joke,” I muttered.

Sis grinned and gave me a thumbs up. “You’re right. Obviously I wanted to see Huey again.”

I closed the door on her. Opened it. Closed it again. Opened it again. Rubbed my eyes and pinched my arm. She was still there. And by the looks of it, she was there to stay.

“Welcome back,” I said weakly, before collapsing.

/.\

Sis was Sis, just like she’d always been, except now she was pale as a ghost, smelled like freshly turned dirt, and was as cold as ice. She said it was a circulation problem. She also, as I quickly found out, was invisible to everyone else. I became her sole companion. 

At least, Sis didn’t have to starve anymore. 

/.\

I confessed to Huey when I was 16. He was two years older, and Sis had been dead for three years. He said no, at first.

“I still miss her,” he told me. To my side, Sis put her free hand over her heart.

“I miss you, too,” she whispered. I squeezed the cold hand I held.

“But I already let one thing go,” Huey continued, “and I don’t really want to let go of another.”

“That’s a yes,” Sis giggled to me conspiratorially. “Oh, what I wouldn’t give to hear him say those words to me.”

“You just heard them,” I whispered back. I let go of her and slowly approached Huey. He watched me, almost warily, but did nothing. I was only after I gave him a hesitant kiss on the cheek, like old times, that Huey smiled and patted my head. 

Sis whistled. I rolled my eyes, enjoying Huey’s attention, even if he only gave it to me because Sis wasn’t here to receive it instead.

/.\

The next year, I got caught in a round-up and forced to enlist in the militia. The neighboring country had unveiled shiny new war machines, and my country and two others decided those had no place in our lives. So the enlisters got everyone they could convince to join, and then went around again to get everyone that wouldn’t be missed.

“Stay safe out there,” was the last thing Huey said to me before he left. He was joining of his own accord, as a trainee medic. He’d always said he was going to get a respectable job and get me and Sis out of our hovel. “I heard that soldiers are out looking for kids like you.”

I appreciated the warning, but got caught anyway a few days later. Whisked away to some training camp outside of town. Of course, Sis came with like a guardian angel from Hell, and she stole me extra rations and generally kept a lookout for my health.

One night, she said, “I wish we didn’t have to go to war.”

I was in my bunk with the other unwanted kids, so I had to whisper. “Don’t we all?”

She didn’t answer that. She didn’t say anything else for a long while, just sat at the foot of my bed and stared out the little window. Finally, as I was drifting off, Sis came to lay beside me and softly said, “If you die, Sana, I’ll throw myself in the incinerator.”

/.\

“Sana! To your right!”

I looked around wildly. There was no one in my immediate view, but beyond the trees I spotted a downed man aiming his rifle at me. I aimed as quickly as I could, but even as I fired, I felt a stabbing pain in my shoulder before the combined force of the bullet and recoil knocked me off my feet.

“Sana!” Sis yelled. She was so far away. I felt her hands on me, squeezing my injured shoulder. “Sana, I’ll carry you out of here. All the way back home if I have to.”

/.\

I woke up being jolted every which way, with Huey staring impassively into my face. I screeched. Right in his face.

“How are you?” Huey asked, calmly leaning away. He signaled to someone I couldn’t see, then turned back to me. “We’re heading home.”

Having some time now to gather my surroundings, I realized we were on one of the mousson-drawn carts, which explained why my entire world was steadily rattling. I was lying on a pile of dirty cloth, and someone had tightly bandaged my left shoulder so that I couldn’t move my arm. I tried to sit up. Something, or rather some _one_ , promptly crashed into me.

“Sana! You woke up! I was so worried!” Sis sobbed into my non-bandaged shoulder. I awkwardly patted her back with one arm. Her earthen smell calmed me. Then I realized Huey was watching us with mild amusement.

“Oh my god,” I said.

Sis looked at me with surprise. “What is it, Sana? Your arm?”

I pointed weakly at Huey. “He can see you. He knows you’re here.”

Sis sat up with a gasp. “Huey? Since when?”

Huey shrugged. “Since you died, I guess.”

“Why didn’t you ever respond when I talked to you?” Sis’ eyes watered. Suddenly she brought a hand to her mouth. “Some of the things I said…! Oh, don’t tell me you heard everything?”

“If you’re talking about the time you acted out our wedding, then yes,” Huey said. “Also, you’re kind of heavy.”

“Huey, you meanie!” Sis pounded her fists on Huey in mock anger. Admittedly, she _was_ kind of heavy. She was still sitting on me, so as much as I wanted to sit up, her weight prevented me from doing so. She slumped back, outburst over. “Why did you pretend…?”

Huey turned away, and I almost didn’t catch his words. “I wanted to interact with Sana on even ground, not through you.”

Sis made another shocked gasp, then collapsed on me again. My injured shoulder began to throb from hitting the floor of the cart so much. “Do you hear that, Sana? Huey loves you. Even more than he loves me,” Sis wailed. “Just because I’m dead, I get left out of the fun!”

I patted her awkwardly on the back as best as I could. “I love you, Sis,” I said. I did. I’d just realized there was a difference between the love I had for Sis and the love I had for Huey. 

“I already know that,” Sis pouted, then laughed after I made a face. She finally got up from my midriff and went to sit on Huey’s other side, away from me.

Huey’s ears flushed red at whatever Sis whispered to him. His face, on the other hand, betrayed only the slightest hint of embarrassment. I found that to be unreasonably cute.

“What?” I demanded, propping myself up on one elbow.

“It’s a secret!” Sis proclaimed.

The cart hit a particularly large bump before I could press Sis further, causing me to slip and jam my injured shoulder against the floor. I yelped in pain.

Huey’s hands were on me immediately, adjusting my position so I was lying comfortably again. “Get some more rest,” he said gently. “I’ll be here.”

/.\

**Author's Note:**

> if you're curious as to what a mousson is, it's like a giant, fluffy ox (sort of like appa from avatar but with only four legs).


End file.
